


To Love Somebody

by citrinesunset



Category: White Collar
Genre: F/M, Romance, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-06
Updated: 2015-01-06
Packaged: 2018-03-06 08:32:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 527
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3128015
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/citrinesunset/pseuds/citrinesunset
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mozzie falls for Elizabeth gradually.</p>
            </blockquote>





	To Love Somebody

**Author's Note:**

  * For [elrhiarhodan](https://archiveofourown.org/users/elrhiarhodan/gifts).



Mozzie's first impressions of people are seldom wrong. But he will admit that his initial judgment of Elizabeth Burke was unfair. He assumed, reasonably so, that a woman willing to marry a Fed must be lacking in the sort of intelligence that he requires in his friends.

But Elizabeth is...special. Somehow, she is able to accept her husband's obvious flaws without her acceptance, in itself, seeming like a flaw. She sees the best in people, but never seems naïve. Mozzie can even accept her refusal to acknowledge that the moon landing was fake, because while most people just seem uninformed, Elizabeth is a woman of admirable conviction. Mozzie can't help but respect that.

All the same, Elizabeth isn't the type of person Mozzie usually spends time with. Yes, she has an impeccable taste in wine and food that Mozzie rarely sees matched, but she also watches daytime talk shows and reads books from the New York Times Bestseller List (even though Mozzie has explained to her that the list is rigged by the government in order to control what the masses read).

Nevertheless, seeing Elizabeth never fails to make him happy. She listens to him—really, honestly listens, even when she doesn't agree with what he's saying. Even Neal doesn't always do that. Her smile and her warm eyes make Mozzie want to believe that some people are good.

In retrospect, he falls in love with her gradually. But the realization is sudden. He's thinking about Neal and Kate one day, and about all the trouble Neal's gotten into because of her. And then he realizes that he, too, has gone against his better instincts. A few years ago, he never would have befriended Elizabeth. He wouldn’t have let her challenge his preconceived notions or serve him white zinfandel.

And he realizes that if he could see himself spending his life with any woman, it would be Elizabeth Burke.

Of course, Mozzie accepts that what people call love is really a mix of hormones and desperation. And if anyone doubts that giving into such base instincts is dangerous, all Mozzie has to do is point to Neal as an example of what _not_ to do.

He also accepts that he has no realistic chance of being with Elizabeth. She seems content to be friends, and her devotion to Peter is unshakable. Sure, Mozzie knows Elizabeth could do a lot better than an FBI agent, but who is he to question her happiness?

So he admires her from afar, and gets his fulfillment from their weekly lunches. A lot of men wouldn't be satisfied, but Mozzie is used to solitude, and has had years to accept that "love" is not something he's made for.

Love is illogical. Neal has done incomprehensible things for what he believes is love. Elizabeth fell for the _Suit_. But maybe that's why people like it. They get high off the unexpectedness, the loss of control. Mozzie is not like those people. He doesn't enjoy losing control, and the smallest taste of love is more than enough. But when he's with Elizabeth, he knows what it means to find joy in another person.


End file.
